5 times 479er picked up Agent Washington 1 she didn't
by Yuhi-san
Summary: 5 times 479er picked up Agent Washington 1 she didn't. From the beginning to the end, Wash just kept pushing through somehow. Which was good, because 479er did not pick up corpses.
1. First

**Authrs Note: **Basically just how 479er witnessing Wash in fife situations of hi live where she has to pick him up. And he one time she does no longer have to do so.

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_**First**_

**The first time 479er picked up Agent Washington he still went by the name David**. He was nothing but another young and unexperienced soldier that wouldn't survive very long in this war and the battles the Freelancer fought. That was what she thought when she saw the blonde man, twenty maybe, sitting next to a destroyed a jeep. North and South Dakota, not since long member of Project Freelancer as well, had gotten the job to pick the new candidate up.

He didn't look very impressive, really. His yellow armor was covered in blood and dirt and other gross fluids that came from an aliens inside. He looked pretty pained, his right arm was in a make shifted splint. North crouched next to him, talking in a hushed voice while South was taking out her anger and spare energy by kicking at the corpse of an alien.

479er hadn't actually been supposed to pick them up in the middle of a canyon. But that was her fucking job, getting the people from the Project inside or outside of the field. So here she was, landing the Pelican in the small canyon as if it was the easiest thing in the world. North had been the one to send the emergency call after they got attacked by a number of Alien.

Agent Washington, or David Connor back then, had not been what she suspected from a man that was sent directly after the basic to the front to fight aliens in order to protect a colony somewhere no one thought of it as worth it. He looked young and unbroken and unafraid. Confident and determinate, yet somewhat naïve.

He was bloody and maltreated but still cracked a smile to greet her when she walked up on them.

He was also surprisingly vivid despite his condition. The way to the Mother Of Invention was filled with a lot of talking and screaming and yelling and fighting.

David was talking quite a lot and it was very unnerving. He seemed rather excited and 479er was not sure if the boy just hadn't been told what lay ahead of him or if he was plainly stupid.

(He didn't know what lay ahead of him. No one could have known.)

The screaming and yelling started when South had enough of him talking and asking questions and got up, surely with the intention to punch her new teammate in the face. It wasn't much of a good idea because the ill-tempered woman never dealt well with flying when siting perfectly still already.

So the result was yelling because she threw up, using Davids helmet to puke inside. Thankfully North had been there as well, sort of managing to take care of both of them and their problems. If 479er wouldn't have known better she would have said they both were Norths younger siblings.

Washington, with grey armor but still yellow accents now, was just another experiment, another candidate chosen for a certain reason. It wasn't hard to guess in his case, really. He was inferior in skills to the other Freelancers. 479er saw that and she was sure even he himself knew that. But he always pushed on.

_What happens if you put someone with potential but lack of skills in a superior group?_

She picked the Freelancers up a lot. At all kinds of places, in all kinds of conditions. She never expected to pick him up so often. But somehow he kept surviving. With luck and help and being stubborn.

_Either he breaks and will be left behind. Or he keeps pushing because that's what he does best._

He was like an annoying kid most of the times when she was flying them. But he grew on her. He grew on everyone and as annoying as he could be, he was impressive. Because he was still able to be like a kid brother and it was real and not a set up innocence like York had.

479er thought that when the day came she didn't need to pick Washington up anymore something would be missing.

A lot was missing long before that day came.


	2. Second

_**Second**_

**When she picked him up years later, he wasn't Agent Washington anymore.** He was Recovery One.

Project Freelancer was as good as done. They didn't need a pilot anymore to fly their agents in and out of fights. They needed a pilot only to bring some of the people from A to B and stuff. Not very exciting and she didn't like the paperwork and administration works she had to do now. But it was a job and all she wanted was to do her fucking job and have some peace at the end of the day.

She didn't recognize him right away.

When she walked up to her Pelican and commanded the last few useless helper to do their stuff, she saw the soldier in grey and yellow, talking to the Consoler. 479er thought of Washington, the immature, communicative young soldier. And she wondered who the guy was and if he would face the same fate as Washington did. Left alone and broken to a point he was unable to return to duty.

The Consoler left before she approached them. Good thing. She never really liked that scumbag because you had to be worried about slipping on the trail of slime he left behind.

She approached the soldier, coming to a halt in front of him. "Alright pal, rule number one: whatever you mess up on my ship, you clean it." Explained the pilot as she pointed over her shoulder with a thumb towards her ship. "Or you and me are gonna have a real problem, got that?" The man didn't falter at all like they usually did. He just stood there, shoulders square.

"I know the rules of your ship."

He sounded off, like it wasn't himself talking. But 479er recognized his voice. It was her who faltered. But there was nothing else coming from Washington, from Recovery one. So she decided to say something anyway.

"I didn't think I'd be bringing you to the field ever again, Wash."

It was like she could feel him scowl behind the visor but his stands didn't change at all. "A lot of things happen you never expected" he replied, voice even and distant. So unlikely him. "And my designation is Recovery One, as you should know."

"I know. And I also know you were under article twelve." She never had been the supporting kind of girl like Agent Connecticut used to be. 479er crossed her arms, considering Washington as if he wasn't the one who had been the annoying and naive kid brother to everyone. Just another soldier.

"Were is the magic word here" he said dismissively. "Can we finally get this started?"

479er shrugged. It wasn't like she knew exactly what happened to him. Failure during the implantation of the A.I. No longer stable and now unfit for duty. "Alright, then let's get moving."

The flight was quiet. Washington didn't talk to her. He didn't avoid her but all he talked about was the mission. And so there wasn't much to say.

When she stopped the ship near their location he just got up and walked to the back of the ship. She remembered him complaining all the time when he had to jump.

She opened up the backside and while the gate slid open, she turned in her seat to look back at Washington. "Hey, you know I hate corpses in my ship", she called. "So try not to die out there."

He looked back at her, though only briefly. "Don't worry about that. Picking up corpses is my job now." He jumped after that, not even waiting for a response.

"Huh." There was nothing to say anyway. So 479er headed back with her ship, waiting for her next order. Who the fuck thought about sending Washington in the field as Recovery One?

She flew him a few times after that. He still only talked to her about the mission, that didn't change. She did the same.

479er thought it was because everything besides the obedient soldier broke away. But sometimes she caught him leaning sideward against the wall so he could look out of the window, head titled against the cold metal. It looks more like him, even though 479er couldn't quite say why.

There were the other times when she saw him quickly cling to the nearest thing when she did a maneuver other people might call critical or something. So she thought a few pieces might be left there.

And so she wondered if these pieces were going to break as well when she dropped him off to get Agent New York.

After 479er dropped him off to get Delta and York, she didn't pick him up and only gave him a transition with orders to pick up North Dakota and Theta right away.

Command had an enemy and they also had a plan. Both South Dakota and Washington were only pawns in this. They were right about Washington not killing South. He was still Wash, somehow, somewhere. They were right about the enemy coming after them. They were right about South Dakota not caring for her team.

But they underestimated her determination to get an A.I.

South was gone with Delta when the recovery beacon from Washington got off and 479er didn't have anything to do with it. It wasn't her job to pick up corpses and there was no hurry for the recovery team to get to Washington since he had no important equipment on him.

She was drinking her coffee in the office, wondering how the perfect little soldier Wash had become could have been so stupid and not put a bullet through this troublesome womans head.

It wasn't until after five hours, when her shift almost was finished and she wanted to go to bed that she got the message to ASAP get with a medic crew to the place where the last beacon went off.

The recovery team found Washington severely wounded but still alive.

Well, shit. Maybe she should have known. He was always like a cockroach.


	3. Third

**Authors Note: **I accidentally loaded chapter fourth up before. I fixed it so this one is what was supposed to be chapter 3.

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**Third**

**She arrived ten hours after** **his beacon went off to pick him up**. When she landed the Pelican, the two medics hurry out of the back towards Washington and the members of the recovery force. She might have waited in the cockpit but 479er still got out, almost strolling over. She had no reason to run to the guy who once was part of a team that was close to her. And she was no medic either. Not like she would be any help.

The place looked like nothing but debris and dirt. What an unspectacular place to die, 479er thought. Somewhere ahead she saw the medics fuss around Wash, preparing him to get moved. She walked over, watching them do their work from a certain distance. The ground was dyed red all around Washington and she wondered how he could live after losing that much blood. But he did.

They had moved him on a stretcher and someone had pulled off his helmet. It was the first time she saw his face since the project crashed.

He didn't look as young as she still thought he would. There were more lines in his face than she thought should be. But it was hard to tell. Washingtons face was scrunched up in pain and his hair was not bright blonde but black like he dyed it a long time ago in the project.

He was halfway conscious, trying to look around and focus, trying to understand what was happening. He was brought to the ship then and while 479er was on her way back to the cockpit one of the medics followed her. "He was quite lucky", the man told her. "The bullets missed his spine and the healing unit he had kept him alive. It was an extraordinary strong one, I must say."

479er stopped right before entering her ship. She turned around to give the man her most annoyed and impassive glance. "Hey, what makes you think you need to tell me? I'm just the pilot. So now get moving and do your job. I hate corpses on my ship" she said in a flippant way and waved him off before she walked past the other medic and Washington. "Hey", she said, casually as if she wasn't talking to a man suffering in his fight against death. "Don't die here, Wash. You know I hate corpses on my ship. And you know rule number one. You gotta clean the mess you make here."

The medic stopped his work to stare at her like she grew a second head. Wash only titled his head with effort, trying to blink his eyes open at her. She wasn't sure if he really understood any longer.

"I don't…" he started, voice faint and the pain lingering in it. He broke off and coughed, followed by a pained hiss as the medic held him in place. He looked agonized and hurt. He tried to focus his eyes on her. The pain was written in them and because she thought he was still such a stupid man she was sure it was not only the hurting from the two bullets in his back. His face was twisted and he bit his lip so hard that he was bleeding there, too.

479er thought he might be close to crying.

There was nothing for her to say so she went on, with firm steps to her cockpit. Because there was something she had to do.

Flying was her job and it was what she did best. The sound of the engines was for her what Hawaiian music or bird twittering was for others. Calming, setting her at ease. But somehow she would have welcomed if the noise had been louder. More distracting.

In the back of the ship 479er heard the medics talk in low voices, doing their work in stabilizing Washington to the best of their abilities in this situation.

She heard him as well. Low moans and muffled cries of pain while the medics work on him. It was not the worst, though. It were the small other sounds. The small chocked off sounds and the weak and pathetic whimper.

She could have shut the door but she didn't. Neither did she say something. Neither did the medics. Because there was nothing to say to a man broken like him.

It didn't last long, though. Unconsciousness came soon over him and everything went quiet expect for the engines and the medics doing their work. It was better.

When they finally landed and the medic brought the unconscious soldier away, 479er watched them, thinking that he might have been better off dead. Maybe it would have been better for him to break his neck instead of his arm back when the Mother Of Invention crashed down.

She needed coffee now.

479er didn't see him for a long time after this. She didn't see him when he got discharged either, though it surprised her that he ever would return to battle again. Though, no one believed him to return to duty ever after the project either.

She never picked him up or dropped him while he hunted the Meta together with this simulation troopers. She only gave him orders over the radio, directing him. It was on a work related basis only.

But when she told him that they found South, she knew one of them would die.

(South died and 479er wasn't surprised. At some point things would come back to her. She wasn't surprised that there was no body left and she didn't believe that the team killing simulation trooper killed her.)

When she told him they found the Meta and she confirmed that it was Agent Maine, she was sure Wash was going to die in this fight. Maybe they both would die.

It didn't matter to her, really. It had nothing to do with her because she wasn't picking corpses up.

But 479er didn't count on Washingtons resistant and his seemingly never dying foolishness.

So she found herself picking both of them up.


	4. Fourth

**Authors Note:** This Chapter was originaly posted as 'Third' but that was a mistake! I moved it up to 4 now.

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**Fourth**

**When she picked him up this time, he was no one.** He had been Recovery one before and he was going to be prisoner 619-B.

She landed her Pelican on a field, not far from project Freelancers headquarters. There were many destroyed vehicles and dead bodies. Nothing she was not used to.

She hopped out of her cockpit, walking towards the group of people as if she wasn't in the middle of what was a warzone only hours ago.

She did recognize Maine, the Meta. It was still the same set of armor laying on the stretcher. His helmet was off and his face didn't seem to fit with the rest of the body. It was grey and shrunken. He didn't really look human anymore. But quite obviously, he was alive even though knocked out, tied up and probably drugged up to no end.

"Ah, 479er", one of the commander came over to her. He wanted to say something but she already shushed him by holding up a hand. "Okay, so you are telling me I'm gonna have this monstrosity on my ship until we reach command?" she questioned, pointing over at what once was Maine.

The commander stood square and upright as if he felt like he needed to make an impression towards her. "Indeed, pilot" he said firmly. "But our team has everything under control. This monster won't get up anytime soon." He sounded so sure of himself that 479er couldn't help but snort. "Sure, that's why you couldn't stop one guy from taking down the whole facility on his own" she pointed out mockingly.

Even with the visor she saw him gasp in indignation. "Tell you what, you better keep that guy under control. Something breaks in there – you and I have a problem." 479er smirked in stratification when the man continued to gape at her.

"I said move it!"

Somewhere behind them she hear someone shout orders. She turned to look, curious. The yellow of his accents caught her attention right away. He was smeared with blood once again, his helmet off and hands cuffed behind his back. His balance was completely off, she could tell by the way he swayed and how uncoordinated his steps seemed. One of the guards shoved him, causing him to stumble. It was clumsy and he still fell on his knees but somehow managed to keep himself from falling right on his face.

She knew Washington had been the one to blow up all the information, all the data project Freelancer had. It wasn't like she thought of this about as heroic as he maybe thought his action was. She wasn't upset about it either. But 479er had to admit that it was pretty impressive. Shutting everything down almost on his own and after waiting so long for a chance to do so.

The commander said something to her but she ignored him and walked over to the two soldiers bringing Washington away. One of them yanked him up on his feet roughly before shoving him again ahead. To them he was an enemy, like the Meta.

479er watched him stumble ahead but somehow he stood, taking with slow and unsteady steps.

"Well, congratulations", she announced loudly as she approached the three men. The two UNSC soldiers looked at her. One straightened up, silent and obedient while she could almost see the other grin, pleased by the compliment he thought was aimed at him. He didn't seem very smart. Washington only titled his head, not quite looking at her from the corners of his eyes. She saw blood running down his arm, coming from an obvious and unthreatened shoulder wound. Clearly these people didn't care if he lived or died. They might as well be hoping for the later one.

"You blew up singlehandedly what was left of project Freelancer and given Maines condition you are probably everything that is left", she said, crossing her arms. He didn't look away from her but only blinked tiredly. The two soldier exchanged glances. Maybe they tried to figure out their relationship. Whatever they came up with it probably was wrong. This time Washington didn't look like he was in pain, despite the wound. He looked confused maybe but mostly just exhausted and tired.

"Does it feel the way you expected it to do?"

The guards looked at her now, one of them stepping between her and Wash. "Hold on, what do you have to do with him, pilot?"

She ignored he man, not caring what he was thinking. Washington didn't care either. From how endlessly tired he looked he was unlikely to care about anything anymore.

"I never expected to survive" he said in a matter of fact, voice weak and loaded with exhaustion.

479er didn't find herself surprised at all.

"So nothing would be left? Then you did a bad job", she told him. Because it was the truth. He swayed again and one of the more silent soldiers gripped his upper arm to hold him upright. They both look at her and Washington as if they expect something spectacular.

Unlikely, boys. "If you still want to die then at least wait until I dropped you off again. I don't want corpses on my ship."

Washington looked at her, having trouble to focus. It was like you could watch his consciousness slowly fading away. He didn't reply. At least not really. 479er saw him mouthing words but no sound came over his lips. She had no idea what he said and in fact, she rather didn't know.

"Hey you" she said instead, turning to face one of the soldiers. "You better do something about the bleeding. If he makes a mess on my ship, you gonna scrub it with a toothbrush until everything sparks again, got that?" When she turned to leave and go ahead to the cockpit, she felt the two soldiers gape at her.

She also felt Washs gaze on her back. But he didn't expect anything from her.

He wasn't that stupid.

When they reached their destination, Washington was unconscious and was brought away. While 479er made sure the other guy cleaned her ship from every single drop of blood, she mused about what would happen to him now. As bitter as it sounded, she actually figured he should die. It probably would be for the best. He had nowhere left to go and for him there was only prison or execution waiting.

A year passed and Washington was becoming just one of many in the back of her mind. 479er worked for the UNSC now. A lot changed but she was still the same. Just a pilot wanting to do her job and have some quiet after it.

But for whom she was she was chosen for a very certain job.

And so she met two men who both had a tendency to always get back up again.


	5. Fifth

**She had been told whom she was going to pick up. **That given, she also knew why she got the job. For one because she knew how to shut her trap and not tell everyone everything and second because she doubted there were many people up to deal with a dangerous monster and an unpredictable traitor.

479er recognized them right away. Maine and Wash had been close friends, back in the project. If there hadn't been this aura of tension around everyone, she would have said it was like back then. Maine – the Meta – paced up and down like the predator he was, the brute shot on his back. He didn't react at all when she landed her Pelican. She hopped out of her cockpit with ease and walked up on them.

Malcom Hograve, the man that hired her for this only told her she was going to fly two considerably dangerous soldiers for a 'delicate matter' as he said.

After all she'd seen in project Freelancer, she was not even surprised to see the two.

The man pacing was the Meta, not Maine. He didn't even react to her besides a low growl, probably meant to intimidate. No one really understood him after the injury. But 479er was not scared at all. They needed her so she had no reason to worry about getting killed. And even if, there was nothing to do about it and nothing you could regret once dead.

Washington was different, she noticed this. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed and his eyes never leaving the Meta. Even when she approached them he only glanced briefly at her. His whole body was stiff and tense. He wasn't the immature young man anymore neither was he the obedient soldier.

There was cold rage inside of him, boiling and barely continued. She felt it coming off him in waves. It was different than South or Carolinas hot and burning anger. But it wasn't less alarming.

"Seems like neither of you can just go and rest in peace, huh?" she said as she stopped and put her hands against her sides. "At least I don't have to repeat myself all the time when I keep flying you."

The Meta growled as he now turned to face her. Washington however shot him a glare. "Shut up", he told the other soldier, voice cold as ice. He pushed himself away from the wall in one fluid motion and walked past 479er. His steps were firm and steady as he headed towards the Pelican. "Let's just hurry and get this over with. As sooner as it's done, the better."

Washington wasn't a leader. He was a follower. So even now, his voice may be steady but it was forced and he was angry and maybe a tad frantic.

"Wow, someone got bossy", 479er said dryly as she followed him, the Meta behind her. "It won't make you stronger, Wash." He pretended not to hear her and got into the back of the Pelican without as much of a brief stop. The Meta growled and followed him. He wasn't Maine and even 479er saw that. Maine wouldn't have followed Wash the way he did now. He had no reason to. But the Meta seemed to have some reason.

Not that she cared. All she did was her job. And this one was simple. Don't ask questions, bring the two t the location they name you and drop them off. Forget you ever knew about this.

The location Wash named her was Valhalla. The flight there was quiet. Not that she expected anything else. Both men were busy with their own mind and thoughts. Washington never let the Meta out of his eyes, was always attentive. As closer they got to their destination as more edgy did they become.

Wash did this annoying thing with tapping his foot while the Meta started to pace up and down, growling from time to time.

"Would you just shut up" Washington said at some point. "I know that they still have it." He said it as if he was having a conversation. One he did not want to have but a conversation nonetheless. If it hadn't been him of all people, 479er would have thought he was crazy. Funny enough, he had been at the funny farm for a time. But she didn't doubted that Washington actually knew what the Meta said.

"Well, you don't have a choice." Wash continued angrily as the Meta growled again. To her it sounded just the same as before.

"I just have to bring it back. If they promised it to you afterwards, I don't care."

Another deep growl. 479er didn't know what the two were after exactly and honestly, she couldn't care less. She wondered anyway how it must feel to be back in the field with the shell of what once was your closest friend.

"They are nothing. We will get it." He probably thought he sounded confident. But she wondered if anyone would be able to miss the despair in it. She also wondered if Wash really still was foolish enough to actually believe to get whatever they promised him as prize.

479er landed her Pelican somewhere at the beach and the Meta stormed out of it, ready to fight like the machine he was. Washington walked slowly behind him, checking the magazine again. As if he hadn't done it multiple times on the ride.

It still wasn't her business and she still didn't care. But she was curious. After all she knew Washington since years, met him as the most childlike man at heart. But he wasn't like that at all anymore.

"Hey Wash!" She called to the back of the ship, turning in her seat. He actually stopped in his motion and waited, even if he didn't bother to look at her. Well, that was probably the best she would get. "You really think that is the right thing to do?"

He didn't answer right away and his shoulders sagged just the slightest. "No, I know it isn't" he replied, then clicked the magazine back in. He looked at her through the expressionless visor. "But I don't care about this anymore."

He left to follow the Meta and 479er thought there probably was about as much left from Washington as there was left from Maine. She wondered if he even cared for anything at all anymore. Either way, she was sorry for whoever would get in their way.

This time, when 479er started her Pelican she was sure it was only a question of time before she got the call from Washington to pick them up again. She did get a call to pick them up later. But it was a recovery signal that indicated little hope to find them both alive.


	6. Plus One

**Plus One**

**479er was not going to pick up Wash this time. **Because she thought she had been clear about not being a fucking hearse. Either way, she still found herself at Sidewinder, standing in the snow not far from leftovers of the Mother Of Invention that were buried under the snow. To put it nicely, it was a mess.

Glaciers had been broken down, blood was about everywhere along with a destroyed jeep and dead bodies. Down the cliff, some fucking idiot managed to somehow crash land a pelican. As she took a look at that, 479er wasn't sure if she didn't want to know who could be that stupid or if she wanted to ask because she would like to tell the guy something. For all that was holy, not even South would have been that bad in flying a pelican.

There were also a whole lot of UNSC soldiers and these annoying simulation troopers which wouldn't stop bickering. One with yellow accent caught her attention but when she looked closer she saw he was cobalt, not grey.

As if it wasn't bad enough, she actually recognized the teal ones voice since he would often contact command because of the negotiations with the Shangheli (how could she forget his voice after he once tried to convince her to have phone sex with him until she said something about cutting off his balls and cooking them for dinner?)

Luckily she didn't have to deal with them. Her job actually was supposed to be to bring back what was left of Washington and the Meta. Well, as for the later, there was nothing much to bring back besides the helmet and some parts of his armor that a poor soul of the UNSC soldiers had gotten from the bloody mess at the bottom of the cliff. 479er swore she saw the guy being green in the face even behind the visor when he handed her over what he got.

As for Washington, he didn't look that much better, honestly. His maltreated and broken body was lying in dyed red snow. He wasn't the first horrible ravaged dead man she saw. And as tough as she got over the years, 479er found a pang of something like condiment when she saw him like that. Because she knew him from a time where he was such a kind and naïve person.

It hadn't been an easy fight and it hadn't been an easy or quick death. But at least he was death now, she thought. Life seemed to have nothing left for him anyway.

There was another soldier of the UNSC, probably with the order to check on Washington. But as the man was quite obviously dead the soldier was just standing there and pretending to work. What a lazy bugger.

479er stalked over towards him. Even though she didn't know exactly what it was that she had to look for she had the very clear order from her employer to look for something in particular. She knew what it looked like, at least.

She stalked over towards Washs body and the man. He flinched and stood upright when he heard her but once he realized she was just a pilot and not his boss he relaxed again. There was no real reason why she noticed. But as 479er took a closer look at the corpse she saw the sniper rifle in the snow. Not that Washington hadn't been able to use this one accurately. But she was fairly sure that he was unlikely to use it. His iconic weapon was the battle rifle.

There really, really was no reason but she looked back at the simulation troopers. From the look of it they were explaining this whole mess to the UNSC with a lot of waving, gesturing and shouting and insulting. Her gaze stopped at the cobalt one.

Battle rifle. Yellow accents.

"What's the matter, pilot?" the guy next to her asked. She couldn't stop from rolling her eyes. "Did he have anything on him?" she nodded at the grey armor she wasn't so sure anymore if it really was Wash. The guys gaze followed hers but he turned his head back soon. "Uh, you mean something that is still intact?"

"Are you stupid or deaf? What part of something was unclear?"

The guy looked at her startled before he sputtered. "No, he has nothing."

"Good, then go and look around to find something that looks like a storage unit. You know, brown, an arm long with a glowing light and a peaky end."

When the guy just gaped at her 479er made a dismissive movement with her hand. "Didn't I tell you to move it? Go ahead and do something useful." When the idiot finally toddled off, the first thing 479er did was to check if she could get the helmet of the death person off. She didn't. The helmet as well as the whole head were smashed and deformed too much. She frowned. She wanted to break the visor open somehow but then decided against it. What she would find every one else could find.

It had been the right dissection because only moments later the UNSC soldier already returned holding something in his hand. It looked like a peaky, pointy brown tip of something rather big.

"That's what you have been looking for?"

479er gave the object a close look. Yeah, looked pretty much like the unit they showed her. "Well, that's half of it. Hand it over and go look for the other half" she ordered and held out a hand to the guy, waiting. When he didn't move right away the pilot groaned loudly. "What's the matter? Are you always that slow or what? Go find the rest of this thing. What's wrong with you guys? Ain't I clear enough?" she ranted, making the man gape at her once more before he decided it was better to get moving now.

Once he left, the first thing 479er did was to call command herself and request one of her workmates to get her through to Malcom Hograve right away. She had to wait only shortly but she already wondered what he was going to say. From all she knew he was very interested in getting this certain unit back. And to have a discourse with Washington. She smirked at the thought of his face when he would get the news.

She heard a small clicking sound in her helmet and knew she could speak now. "479er reporting in, sir."

"We have you, 479er. You are secure. Go ahead", Hograve said at the other end, voice plain as always. "Can you retreat the object?"

"Negative, sir" she replied almost bored. "I found the object. But it's broken. As in two halfs." There was a long silence at the other end, enough for her to tap her foot at the snow in annoyance. "I see. Then pleas return with Agent Washington and the Meta as soon as possible."

479er rolled her eyes in instead of groaning. Because no matter as much as she wanted to do that, to groan in annoyance when you had your superior on the other end of the radio wasn't the smartest thing to do. So she settled for yelling at other people even if she liked to tell that guy a few things.

"About that, sir" she said, trying to sound not as annoyed as she felt. "I never agreed to be a corpse transport in this. The Meta is only a smear you could maybe scrape off the bottom of this cliff and Washingtons body doesn't look much better. So if you really want this leftovers I suggest you send someone else."

There was again silence from the other side, only disturbed from some rustling noise. She knew he didn't like the way she talked but 479er was very strict about this. The only corpses she tolerated on her ship where the ones that still were alive when they got onboard.

"That is unfortunate", the Chairman said, his voice low and even but somehow it sent a shiver down 479ers back. It wasn't like she didn't knew that this man had just as many shady things going on as the Director. Just a hunch, really. Wash really would be better off dead because she doubted that he would have gotten whatever he had been promised.

"In that case gather the leftover equipment and return back to the headquarters. We will have a conversation about this later. As for now, just return as fast as possible. You must not answer anyones questions."

"Roger that, sir. 479er out."

She shut off the radio and exhaled. Well, great. Sounded like she had to do another boring and long report. Looking around shortly she could see the soldier she sent before to find the rest of the memory unit looking through the snow. "Hey you! Get over here and take care of this body!"

The man stopped in his movement and looked over to her. He didn't react immediately and so 479er already got impatient. "What's wrong? Move it and do your Job!"

"But you told me to collect this unit thing!"

"No, I told you to get the fuck over here and get rid of the corpse! What's so hard to understand about it?"

When the guy finally came back to her he looked down at Washs body and then slowly back up at her. "And what exactly am I supposed to do with him?" he asked her uncertainly.

"Didn't I say? Get rid of it. Over the cliff there with it." She pointed casually behind herself with a thumb and it only caused the man to gape at her through the visor. "Throw him over the cliff?"

"Did I sputter or something?"

"No, no. But-"

"Hey, you wane question the order? No? Good. Because I don't think your boss would be happy to be bothered with nullities like that. So get _moving_! God why do I have to repeat myself all the time?"

The soldier had been more than hesitant but in the end he dragged the body away and over the cliff while 479er collected what was left for her to take with her. Somewhere on the other side of the snowfield she heard other soldiers yell about losing their job. When she turned she saw the red sim troopers fly off with a hornet in the most horrible manner she'd ever seen in her whole life (and she saw a lot.)

Curiosity stung her again and she let her eyes travel around, looking for the blue soldiers. She caught sight of them up a hill just in time to see how the teal one shoved the cobalt one in what was probably an amicable manner. But it was enough to make the other man sway and he had to make a quick grab for his upper arm to keep him from falling.

For a reason she really couldn't imagine the regular blue one shoved them both with so much force that they almost literally fell down the hill. She titled her head as she heard yelling from over there she couldn't quite make out.

She probably would never knew if the man with the yellow accents really was Wash or if he was the body that now lay with Maine down on the bottom of the cliff. But either way, he probably was finally out of what became his hell on earth.

Good luck either way.


End file.
